Jun Hirose

Jun Hirose of the Carp is yet another player calling it a career.  Hirose attended Hosei University of the Tokyo Big Six collegiate league where he won the Triple Crown as a junior in (I think) the spring season of 2000.  He also was a member of the Japan National team for the 2000 Sydney Olympics (and unfortunately did not have a card in either of the sets for that team).  The Carp drafted him in the second round of the fall 2000 draft.  He debuted with the ichi-gun team early in the 2001 season but he mostly was a backup player for the first nine years of his career.  He became a full time player for the first time in 2010 and hit .309 with 12 home runs.  He made the All Star team and won a Golden Glove award that year.  He went back to a part time role the following season and remained that way pretty much the rest of his career.  He set a record for getting on base safely in 15 consecutive plate appearances in April of 2013 and made the All Star team for a second time that year.  He played almost entirely with the farm team the past two seasons - his only appearance with the top team was his retirement game at the end of September this year.

His BBM rookie card was #364 in the 2001 set but he didn't have another card in a BBM flagship set until 2007.  His first Calbee card wasn't until 2010 (#135).  He also had cards in sets from Upper Deck, Konami, Bandai and Front Runner.

2011 BBM Legend Of Tokyo Big Six #096

2001 BBM #364

2001 Upper Deck #3

2007 BBM 1st Version #387

2010 BBM All Stars #A32

2011 BBM 1st Version #393

2012 Front Runner Carp Starting Lineup #06

2014 Calbee #145

2016 BBM Carp #C60